The goodwife returned in a brief space, to find her guest buried in a
deep study, and her cakes burned to a cinder.

"What!" she cried, with an outburst of termagant spleen, "I warrant you
will be ready enough to eat them by-and-by, you idle dog! and yet you
cannot watch them burning under your very eyes."

What the king said in reply the tradition which has preserved this
pleasant tale fails to relate. Doubtless it needed some of the
swineherd's eloquence to induce his irate wife to bake a fresh supply
for their careless guest.

It had been Guthrum's main purpose, as we may be assured, in his rapid
ride to Chippenham, to seize the king. In this he had failed; but the
remainder of his project went successfully forward. Through Dorset,
Berkshire, Wilts, and Hampshire rode his men, forcing the people
everywhere to submit. The country was thinly settled, none knew the fate
of the king, resistance would have been destruction, they bent before
the storm, hoping by yielding to save their lives and some portion of
their property from the barbarian foe. Those near the coast crossed with
their families and movable effects to Gaul. Elsewhere submission was
general, except in Somersetshire, where alone a body of faithful
warriors, lurking in the woods, kept in arms against the invaders.

Alfred's secret could not yet be safely revealed. Guthrum had not given
over his search for him. Yet some of the more trusty of his subjects
were told where he might be found, and a small band joined him in his
morass-guarded isle. Gradually the news spread, and others sought the
isle of Ethelingay, until a well-armed and sturdy band of followers
surrounded the royal fugitive. This party must be fed. The island